Silicon on insulator (SOI) circuits may be used to implement photonic switches capable of establishing light paths between a plurality of inputs and outputs. SOI circuits can provide compact photonic circuits. However, the circuits may require an optical signal to have a pre-defined state of polarization, e.g. transverse electric (TE) polarization. As such, photonic integrated circuits may require polarization controllers for adjusting the optical polarization of incoming signals to be TE polarized. Such polarization controllers may be provided as separate components, implemented either on the same photonic chip or off-chip. The additional components of the polarization controller increase the insertion loss and power consumption.
It would be desirable to have an improved switch capable of controlling a state of polarization.